humanity — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Humankind; human beings as a group.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

   At last the concourse is relatively clear of humanity and the task of clearing up can begin.

   More examples (2)

   It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; perhaps to moralise on the oneness or fragility of the planet, or to see humanity for the small and circumscribed thing that it is; […].

   “The internet”, Eric Schmidt, former chairman of Google, famously observed, “is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn’t understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.”

2. The human condition or nature.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

3. The quality of being benevolent; humane traits of character; humane qualities or aspects.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Synonyms

   humaneness

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   Think of that; by that sweet girl that old man had a child: hold ye then there can be any utter, hopeless harm in Ahab? No, no, my lad; stricken, blasted, if he be, Ahab has his humanities!

   Killing Animals Humanely. Humanity requires that animals be killed in the quickest and least painful manner. The following circular has been sent by our American Humane Education Society very widely through the country.

4. Any academic subject belonging to the humanities.

   Usage

   • Countable

   Examples

   Philosophy is a humanity while psychology is a science.

Noun

1. the quality of being humane

   Broader terms

   humaneness

2. the quality of being human

   Synonyms

   humannessmanhood

   Broader terms

   quality

   Examples

   he feared the speedy decline of all manhood

3. all of the living human inhabitants of the earth

   Synonyms

   worldhuman racehumankindhuman beingshumansmankindman

   Broader terms

   homomanhuman beinghumangroupgrouping

   Examples

   all the world loves a lover

   she always used ‘humankind’ because ‘mankind’ seemed to slight the women